Arnold Palmer Invitational
March 5 - 8, 2026
The PGA TOUR’s Florida swing continues at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge – an iconic venue for one of the most iconic players of all time.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard is the second of three player-hosted invitationals (along with Tiger Woods’ The Genesis Invitational and Jack Nicklaus’ the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday) on the TOUR’s schedule this year and is the fourth of eight Signature Events.
Here's everything else you need to know before play begins in Orlando.
COURSE: Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge, par 72, 7,466 yards. Bay Hill will once again host the Arnold Palmer Invitational, as it has every year since 1979. It’s a mostly flat layout but features water challenges on most holes and demands a high level of ball-striking to score well. A shot maker’s delight, Bay Hill is as testy as any PGA TOUR venue across the last half decade, with single-digit under-par winning scores in three of the last four seasons.
72-HOLE RECORD: 264, Payne Stewart (1987)
18-HOLE RECORD: 62, Andy Bean (Round 2, 1981), Greg Norman (Round 2, 1984), Adam Scott (Round 1, 2014).
LAST TIME: Kurt Kitayama let a star-studded cast of chasers back into the mix after making a triple bogey on the par-4 ninth Sunday, but a clutch birdie on the penultimate hole of the tournament followed by a nifty lag putt from 47 feet (to tap-in range) secured his first PGA TOUR title. Kitayama put together a virtuoso statistical effort – he ranked T1 in driving accuracy, T1 in greens in regulation and No. 3 in Strokes Gained: Putting. Kitayama shot back-to-back even-par 72s at Bay Hill over the weekend, weathering Sunday’s triple bogey with steady back-nine play to hold off an impressive pack including Rory McIlroy and Harris English, who shared second place one shot back. Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler finished a shot further back at 7-under and tied for fourth. Scheffler was looking to go back-to-back at Bay Hill but shot a 1-over 73 in the final round.
FIELD NOTES: Austin Eckroat will head north from Palm Beach Gardens to Orlando in search of back-to-back TOUR titles, fresh off a victory at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches in a Monday finish. Eckroat, who finished No. 3 in the inaugural PGA TOUR University Ranking in 2021, became the second PGA TOUR University alum to win on TOUR after Ludvig Åberg. Eckroat won the Cognizant Classic by three shots and will make his Bay Hill debut this week … Defending champion Kurt Kitayama looks to continue his solid play so far in 2024 and hopes to become the first back-to-back winner at Bay Hill since Matt Every in 2014-15. Kitayama is 5-for-5 in made cuts on TOUR this season … Reigning FedEx Cup champ Viktor Hovland is back in action. Hovland last teed it up at The Genesis Invitational where he finished tied for 19th. He has recorded back-to-back top 10 results at Bay Hill, including a runner-up in 2022 … Current world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is back in action and looking to continue his excellent form at Bay Hill. Scheffler has gone T4-1-T15 in his last three Arnold Palmer Invitational starts, and he hasn’t finished worse than T17 in his last five TOUR starts – including three straight top 10s … Other notables include Rory McIlroy (the winner in 2018 and runner-up a year ago), two-time winners from last season Lucas Glover and Max Homa, recent major champs Brian Harman and Wyndham Clark, past FedEx Cup champs Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay, and plenty more star power.
Here Are Your Pro Shop Staff Picks For This Week
Matt Krallman - 1st- Rory McILroy
2nd- Hideki Matsuyama
Dark Horse Pick - Rickie Fowler
Matt Kay - 1st - Scottie Scheffler
2nd- Viktor Hovland
Dark Horse Pick - Kurt Kitayama
Nic Johnson - 1st - Brooks Koepka
2nd- Matt Fitzpatrick
Dark Horse Pick - Min Woo Lee
Cale Bolinger - 1st - Collin Morikawa
2nd - Jake Knapp
Dark Horse - Jacob Bridgeman